Another Stateside JDM kei car; ‘95 EA21R Suzuki Cappuccino

The autocross was really fun; the Cappo exceeded my expectations. The weather turned out to be much nicer than forecast. Still really cold, still wet, and I was in the first run group, but no slush, no heavy rain, minimal wind, and a couple moments of sun. I got through tech and lined up behind another FR convertible in grid early before heading out on a course walk.

It was great to see everyone again after the winter!

With the last-minute car change and my style of focusing on fun and learning rather than competition, I was running NFP with this group of other not for points folks, plus some street tire folks. The tires on my car are Bridgestone Playz PX-C 175/60-14, which seem to a slightly sporty, slightly-economy compact car tire for the Japanese market. I have no idea how it compares to our domestic offerings.

The Cappo was so much fun to autocross! It is touchy with a short wheelbase, open diff, and a fair amount of body roll, but the challenge of trying to get it to dance through the cones was super fun! I had one as-close-to-spinning-possible-but-not. It might be the nature of the car, or it might be my learning curve. By my later runs I was getting some mild controllable oversteer on demand. If it was dry, I might have needed third, but in the cold greasy damp, I could leave it in second. The faster slalom was almost a straightaway for me!  Ended up 5th out of 15 in NFP.

 PIR parking is always tight, even more so on a weekend with an event on-track like the SCCA races running this one. For my work assignment I found a perfect kei-car-sized parking space!

Might have to bring this car out to more autocross events! At 6'2", headroom with top up and a helmet is very tight...maybe even claustrophobic...probably much better in targa or convertible mode when the weather allows.

A few photos of last weekend courtesy of a buddy who came out with his camera. He says he's out of practice shooting cars and the shots aren't up to his quality standards, but nice of him to come out and share the photos in any case.

Adding a helmet to the equation in a car that is already quite tight for me made getting in and out...comical...to say the least. I started asking around in grid if anyone had a shoehorn, which got a few laughs! 

It was definitely wet for the earlier runs, with some decent-sized puddles, and quite greasy in spots!

It started to dry out a bit as time wore on, and runs 4-6 were still slippery, but more predictable.

This is the entry into a decreasing-radius uphill-to-downhill nearly 180 degree section of the course, and it was where I was struggling with understeer.

If I got overzealous with weight shift to the front, the back end steps out really quickly, so I had to be lightning-fast to keep her pointed mostly where I wanted to go....great fun! It is also hilarious to feel like there is a lot of room to play around with line on an autocross course...the car is just so small it makes the course very different than if I was in a normal car.

It turns out if you put magnetic numbers on a wet car on a really cold rainy morning, do your runs, then park and run off to your work assignment with the numbers still on the car, and then the sun comes out almost immediately and warms up a lot...by the time your work assignment is over the water trapped under the autocross numbers can get forced into the paint! 

All is not lost, however! It turns out that a lot of patience and a heat gun on a low setting can help!

While I was at it, I did another round (I think this is either the fifth or the sixth round) of caked excess wax removal. Since I've already been at this for a while, we're at the point where we already dug out the big piles, and for the minor residue I love bamboo skewers! Not perfect yet, but getting better every round.

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The past week I've been temporarily down one parking space at home, so I shuffled the fleet around, parked the FR-S at the shop, and have been dailying the Cappo, which is a bit of an adventure!

The weather has been cold and plenty of rain showers, plus occasional hail. Mean temps are something like 7 degrees below normal and there were frost advisories this morning and again tomorrow morning! Perfect convertible weather! 

When I got done with work it was a bit warmer and partly sunny, so I decided to stow the top. 54 degrees out felt balmy compared to some of what we've had lately!

Each panel slips into its own padded bag, and they all nest together in the trunk.

Ready to take the long way home in targa mode!

I've got a little clunk when letting out the clutch...time to check the differential bushings. I'm 98% sure the one that takes the primary fore/aft load is the culprit. I think I've got replacements on the shelf. Might refresh the shifter bushings while I'm at it, as they are a little vague as well. With 29,000 miles on the clock, I'm guessing age is the primary issue, rather than usage.

I've been a little tied up with the FR-S and the bikes the past month, so not a ton of Cappuccino activity.

I met up with a longtime friend and enthusiast who came to town to visit yesterday, so I drove the Suzuki to work so we could go for a ride, and had a blast the entire time behind the wheel!

While waiting around to meet up, I did a little work on the car, starting with ripping out the strange aftermarket "Rust Buster" from the inner fender.

It looks much nicer now, both in the engine bay, and in the driver side sill. So gratifying to get rid of the loose poorly-constrained obviously-aftermarket wiring! I hit both spots where it was taped down with some adhesive remover to get rid of the sticky goo.

I registered this car for another autocross next month, which I am looking forward to very much.

In reply to ae86andkp61 (Forum Supporter) :

Wow, I'd never seen a device like that, so I did a little searching, and found this: https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/1996/07/rust-evader-inventor-settles-ftc-charges

Hah!

In reply to obsolete :

Thanks for the link! I knew it smelled like snake oil as I pulled it out of there...good riddance!

I signed up for an autocross this weekend with the Cappuccino. A longtime friend, former shopmate, fellow AE86 enthusiast, and a very experienced autocrosser will be joining me as a dual driver in my car! I'm excited to hear his impressions and receive his feedback. I'm sure he'll smoke me, but my goal is to see how close I can come to his times. Should be fun! 

For the autocross at Keizer Stadium my friend (and experienced autocrosser) joined me, sharing my Cappuccino.

He has driven several different platforms, and is the type of autocrosser who loves learning and developing a chassis, and tweaking his driving style to get the most out of the car, so I was very excited to share my car and soak up his impressions and feedback. On raw times, I trailed him by a few tenths every run. His first two runs included a cone penalty and all my runs were clean, so I've got that going for me! 

The car leans/sways a lot. Among the things I've learned: 

-The car is comfortable enough with a roof and no helmet, or a helmet and no roof, but not both! 

-I'm not sure why all the other competitors thought the slalom was tricky, I just drove (almost) straight through it!

-The tires on the car aren't especially grippy, which is fun.

-With the aforementioned tires, it is possible to light up the inside rear while cornering hard while in boost.

-In the aforementioned scenario, it is tricky to stay in boost when the tire grabs again.

I took some of my favorite twisty two-laners home from autocross through fields, hills, and patches of woods.  Such a great drive in this little roadster!

I just registered for the July 2nd event, and thinking I'll try my sticky tires for this one and see how it goes.

Does anyone have a place that can fabricate custom sway bars, matching the stock shape, but with a different stiffness? If I'm dreaming, slightly stiffer with 3-4 adjustable holes in the end would be spectacular! FWIW, I realize this may not be cheap, and I'm not opposed to paying for something that actually gets delivered.

I'm also considering an LSD, but the market is really limited, so I think I'd rather look into sway bars first.

Addco.net

no affiliations, never used but advertise in GRM and the add says “if we don’t stock it, we can build it ...”

thanks for sharing, love these cars

In reply to daytonaer :

Awesome, thanks for the tip, and glad you like the car! I'm aware of Addco, but hadn't realized they do custom. I'll look into it.

In the meantime, I'm thinking I'll put my 200 TW tires on for the event coming up in just over a week, and see what more grip does. Will the additional traction mean less occurrence of the one-tire fire, or will it mean even more body roll, and even less weight on the inside rear? Will I be coming out of corners fast enough to need third on the straight? Will it still have the playful fun of getting to toy with the handling balance, or will everything be too sped up to easily catch it when one end slides?

I got a lot done on the Cappuccino today! I met oldeskewltoy out at the shop, and we did some work on his Toyota Mark II project first, getting the rear axle into place, and then we turned to my car.

The goals for today were to get the car up, change wheels/tires, check the brakes, investigate the rear diff clunk, examine the feasibility of doing the shifter bushings (and if punting on this, make a plan for next time) and maybe put my Suzuki Sport muffler on.

Here's the stock muffler. I'm pretty sure the Suzuki Sport one is just a stainless version of the same with mandrel bends instead of crush bends, and a fancy tip.

The rear differential is held in by three bushings, two on the front with a bolt passing through vertically, and one on the rear cover with a bolt passing through horizontally. Nothing noticeably wrong with the rear bushing.

Moving forward to the front two bushings the problem became apparent. These bushings are two parts, one of which is pressed into the diff carrier, deals with forces parallel to the ground (fire-aft and side-side) and has a metal sleeve in it. The other part is rubber plus a metal cap, bolts to the top of the carrier, and deals with up-down forces. When tightened down against the metal sleeve in the lower part, the top part should capture the whole assembly. Mine are floating above, with space for the front of the assembly to rock up and down! I guess the rubber shrank or something! The bolt can't be tightened to take up the space because the metal sleeve.

I have a set of new Monster Sport bushings on the shelf, but A) I don't want to drop the whole rear subframe right now, and B) if I get a limited slip, I may buy a complete differential assembled from Japan for easy swapping, rather than buy just the limited-slip and have to drop the subframe and have it installed in my existing differential....and if I do that, I don't want to waste the Monster Sport bushings by pressing them into a housing that will soon come out and become my spare.

I figured I could shim the existing setup and reduce the clunk, so I cut out a plastic disc each side and bolted it in...temporary fix, but much better!

It passed the initial test of 'try to rock it with my hands' with flying colors.

Ok, onto the wheel/tire swap. I've got stock 14x5 wheels on the car with 175/60-14  Bridgestone Playz PX-C tires, and my second wheels are 14x6 Furalco Fins with brand-new 185/60-14 Dunlop Direzza ZIII.

Oh yeah!!

Looking pretty good if I say so myself! I had a different set of gold fins I never got to run on my old AE86 project before it sold, and they are my favorite color/style of wheels ever, so it was gratifying to bolt these on to the Cappo!

One great thing about the stock wheels is how light they are. The new wheels aren't heavy, but they do add about ten pounds each corner! Guess I'll have to keep hoping I can score some of the ultra-ultra-rare 14" high offset 4x114.3 Volk TE37s on the used market.

Moving on towards the shifter bushings, the next step was dropping the exhaust. Thankfully it all came apart pretty easily!

The upper tunnel brace/heat shield (the one above the exhaust, below the driveshaft) was very dirty and somewhat corroded on the top side, but way better than the one on the silver Cappuccino I used to own.

I gave it a good scrub and a bit of a polish, which helped a lot.

And re-installed...

I didn't get photos of dropping the driveshaft, but it looked good, and felt like it could use a u-joint rebuild next time I drop it. I drained the transmission, which had roughly the appropriate quantity of gear oil which didn't look too old or nasty.

Ok...on to the shifter bushings.

This is looking up from underneath at the remote shifter. The tail of the transmission is visible bottom of the frame, and the shifter comes down just out of frame at the top of the photo. If you look closely at the top bolt with the yellow paint matchmarks, you will see that the bushing is pretty much completely missing! No wonder the shifter was vague!

While we were in there, all the bushings got replaced, upper, lower, horizontal, and vertical. The green bushing is the replacement for the one that was basically gone.

Oldeskewltoy works on the remote.

I'm guessing the schmutz visible on the inside is the last bit of old bushing remnants?

With the shifter rebuilt and driveshaft back in place, it was time to fill the transmission.

With the exhaust off, I could see that the cat is degrading...not sure exactly what to do about it, as it is a proprietary design close-coupled right off the turbo, so it is essentially also the downpipe and is no longer available.

I found some of the bits of the converter matrix in the muffler I removed!

Stainless Suzuki Sport muffler installed. I think this looks great! The sound is barely changed from the stock muffler.

The final task accomplished was installing the aftermarket tunnel brace. Old and new side-by-side.

And installed; hopefully it adds some chassis stiffness!

Getting quite dark out; but here's the car back on the ground. Initial impressions from the test drive are a huge improvement in shift feel. The 185/60-14 are *really* close to rubbing in several spots (less than half an inch) but just seem to fit without rubbing. The stock size is 165/65-14, which is theoretically 0.3" smaller in diameter than the tires I installed. The 175/60-15 that used to be on there were theoretically only 0.2" smaller in diameter than stock. I guess on a car this small, every millimeter is precious in terms of packaging, so really tight is the norm.

After using the car for a while without cleaning, and working on the car for a while without cleaning, today was a good day to get my detail on!

Pre-wash. The dust can be seen where the sunlight crosses the hood...and on the rocker panels.

I'm still finding hidden bits of mechanically-applied excess white paste in crevices! Check the inner lower corner of the taillight with the trunk lid up.

Aahhhh...so gratifying to rinse it away! This is the perfect picture to illustrate the trick of this metallic paint. Every once in a while under intense bright sunlight at the right angle, I find myself wondering if my car might actually be blue...but in 98% of angles/lighting is is definitely green.

Thanks to the cottonwoods overhead still dropping their cotton at a relentless rate onto my wet car, doing a proper dry job or paint sealant application was going to be tricky without grinding a bunch of cottonwood seeds into the paint, so I stopped after the foam cannon, hand wash, rinse, interior vacuum, and interior plastic/vinyl cleaning. I let it air dry and might have a few water spots, but the cotton eventually blew off and it is looking much better! Still need to tackle an internal window clean.

I love the look of some chonky performance 60-series tires on an 80's/90's car! 

The car looks great on the new wheels. 

As far as the cat goes, it looks like it's already failed and is likely both robbing you of horsepower and not doing its job well. I personally, would probably just punch the rest of it out with something long and blunt while sorting out either a replacement one from Japan or figuring out how to fabricate a new down pipe with an aftermarket high flow cat maybe slightly farther downstream for ease of future replacement.

In reply to bumpsteer :

Thanks! I have a new high-flow performance downpipe/cat on order. It just so happens that Monster Sport recently produced a run, and I was able to snag one! It looks like a much better design for flow than the stock setup.

https://www.monster-sport.com/e/news/20/201023.html

I'm sure an upgrade setup could be fabricated, but the space is extremely limited, and it isn't the easiest part shape-wise, so I was very glad to have the option of just buying one. The two pipes between the cat and the muffler are also both going to be replaced with slightly oversize stainless Monster Sport parts! 

It is quite difficult to get a photo which properly conveys the available space. The downpipe/cat is closer to vertical than horizontal, just under the turbo/manifold, just in front of the firewall, alongside the bellhousing, and  has its outlet just above the floor. To give you an idea of scale, the pipe after the cat is either 1.5" or 1.75" O.D. (don't know which off the top of my head, but small.)

Last weekend's autocross was really fun with the rebuilt shifter and sticky tires! It was hot, and a high-grip surface, so perhaps not the best setting for a boosted, tiny, underpowered, over-tired car. It was also at the air museum, with old airplanes as a backdrop on one side, and a beautiful oak savanna as a backdrop on the other.

The increased grip was great! The handling and response felt just like before, but faster! The big problem that came up was tire rub on the rear. The course had some long, fast corners...and some bumps, so I started to hear the unmistakable "zit...zzzzrt...zzt" of tires rubbing the fender when cranked hard into a corner. It was worse on the right rear, and the left seemed to be mostly spared. You can see the little ribbons sliced off around the tread wear indicator...uh, indicator arrows.

I think a minor rear fender roll will solve the issue. The added weight of the wheels was noticeable, but not terrible.

One part of the course included medium-high speed into a long decreasing radius 270 degree sweeper all the way around to a course crossover, and then into a slalom. I had so much diving in there with a bit of extra speed, chucking it in, feeling the feedback on the front traction threatening to push, and lifting off until the back was starting to step out and the car was tightening its line...riding that balance edge until the corner exit was in view, and then feeding in the power until I heard the inside rear tire starting to scrub just a tiny bit, and modulating the throttle to rocket off into the slalom. I love this little car! 

Parts arriving from Japan! I'm leaving on vacation tomorrow morning, so installing this will await me once I return. Monster Sport stainless exhaust (to match my existing Sport muffler) and turbo downpipe/high-flow catalytic converter. 

I'm very impressed with the quality. The real question...do I install my upgraded turbo and header along with the other exhaust parts? More power is tempting, but I don't want to sacrifice much response, if any. I love the stock torque peak at 3500 rpm, and I'm not sure the car would be as fun if I increased the peak, but shifted that peak up to 5000-ish rpm.

While mulling over the choice between turbo upgrades or enjoying the awesome stock state of tune, I decided to work on the rear fender interference.

I figured I would start with the right rear, the side with the issue. Here's a view looking upward in the right rear wheelwell  before work begins. The rear of the car is towards the bottom. The plastic bumper in the bottom of the photo shows no signs of rubbing, and the metal lip above that is the main culprit, with the rub marks most visible towards the rear, and reducing as we move forward.

I made a little slice in the corner of the metal lip with a thin cutoff wheel to prevent wrinkling/puckering. Also note the dreaded white polish residue I'm still working on removing when I find it, thanks to some dreaded previous owner!

Shoutout to the guys at Trackside Motorsports for the advice and the loan of the fender roller! I used lots of heat gun, lots of patience, and a fair bit of gentle tapping with a plastic Eastwood body hammer. The hammer got the lip headed in the right direction, and the roller kept it folding over more and smoothed things out. Lots of back and forth between techniques, with frequent heat gun applications.

Here's the same corner part of the way done. The back side looks worse than the front, but as with any bodywork, it is a process of slow adjustments, and a little bit of chasing my tail.

A little bit further along in the process. The areas of worst interference (towards the bottom of the photo) are folded over more than the lip further towards the top where interference wasn't so bad. What used to be approximately a 90-degree angle is now slowly transitioning from about a 25-degree angle to about a 60-degree angle towards the front.

A bit more patient adjusting and the shiny side is looking good enough for me. I'm pretty damn proud of the results, actually!

I didn't document the left side as thoroughly, and I was a bit less aggressive with the roll because it doesn't seem to have rubbing. Here's a before viewed down from above.

After from the same angle. There's a little tiny crease on this side (not easily visible from many angles) due to a spot weld between the inner and outer fender on the lip. If it bothers me down the road, I may drill or grind out the spot weld to release the tension, and then seal it, or plug weld it and risk warping, and then touch up the paint inside the wheelwell...or not...

Next event for this car is autocross in 2.5 weeks! In the meantime I'll keep enjoying it now and again, but don't expect a full test of tire clearance until I can crank on it in competition.

Nice shady parking photo from today's lunch run in targa mode...so much fun! 

Just a small update on the Cappo; breaking my wrist in August when I was hit by an inattentive driver threw a bit of a monkey wrench in the works.

If nothing else, when all your vehicles have manual transmissions, and your right hand/wrist has significantly impaired function, having the option of a RHD is convenient for getting around.

I've since healed quite a bit, with a bit more to go, but I drove the Cappo to work for a bit.

In the off-season, I hope to install the upgraded turbo, ECU, cat, and exhaust. I briefly started down the rabbit hole/scope creep of doing everything "right" before installing anything. In other words, investigating turbo rebuilds, ceramic coatings, extrude honing, intercooler upgrades, electronic boost controllers, and more.

Then I stopped, took a breath, and realized that I want to replace the cat/downpipe, and exhaust no matter what. I don't know if I ultimately want the bigger turbo (and associated ECU/injectors/plugs) but there is only one way to find out, and it isn't a ton more work if I'm already doing exhaust. If I try them and like them, stuff can be redone, improved, and upgraded over time. If they ruin what I like about the stock engine, I can always pull them off and sell them.

The turbo kit was sold to me as good condition, save a minor exhaust leak on the turbo manifold. The turbo shaft doesn't have any play, and the turbo doesn't show any troublesome visual indicators of issues.

Here's the short list to get ready to install:

-Get the turbo manifold milled flat...maaaybe also have it coated

-Source a gasket for the cylinder head to exhaust manifold surface...I have new for all the other gaskets

-Get the injectors cleaned and flow tested

-Source appropriate spark plugs

-Make sure I have appropriate sealing washers for the turbo oil feed pipe; I think I do

-Deburr the nasty casting flash on the pipe to the blowoff valve

-Check and make sure I have new hardware and hangers for the exhaust...I think I do.

Work isn't likely to proceed until after the New Year, but I can start planning and procuring the last few small parts.

Between focusing on recovering from my really badly broken wrist and working on the bikes, I haven't made any progress on Cappo upgrades this off-season. There are still a few things to report. I just registered for the autocross season opener with my club on two weeks, so that is exciting and awesome, and I'll be there with the Cappo in whatever condition it is in at that point.

The second development is that a few days ago I bid on and won a super-duper rare used factory Torsen LSD third member on Yahoo Japan Auctions! Dreams do come true; hopefully it is in good shape!

The auction photos inform me that I will be replacing all bushings, but the guts look promising. The price really wasn't bad with the current exchange rate.

Season-opener autocross is tomorrow! Forecast is for cold and rainy, but should still be fun! The venue is the South Paddock at PIR, which is tight, has elevation changes, and a couple potholes, but is always a great venue because it is at a racetrack, and the compact nature of the course makes it easy to walk, and great for spectators. The fact that it is right inside city limits and only a fifteen minute drive away is gravy on top!

Last week I topped off the battery on the trickle charger, and washed the exterior. Today I removed the floormats, made sure I had enough in the fuel tank, got my numbers loaded, found my helmet and got it loaded, and packed my raincoat for my work shift. No chance to swap third members yet, Im way too busy with the shop move and trying to finish up the bikes as a result.

I'm certain tomorrow will be a top-up event in coupe mode. Good diversity across the vehicles and people entered. I love this club! 76 entries and counting...Tomorrow is going to be amazing! 😁

Tons of fun to get back to competitive events after the off-season!
 

The course walk gave me a chance to sip some coffee (I'm NOT a morning person and was in the first run group) and catch up with some autocross friends. The course design was awesome as always, fast and fairly flowing despite the small constricted venue.

Typical course conditions. It was cool, and started raining as I was sitting in grid! The surface was variable and very slick in spots. 

I wasn't fast, but I had fun. I encountered some fuel starvation in the long left hand sweepers, which caught me a bit off-guard. The tank was indicating just under half-full. I don't recall this issue before, so I guess I've just always had a relatively full tank at autocross before. The tank isn't really baffled much other than a little bit around the pickup, which is on the left side of the tank. What's the weight penalty for a full tank? An extra 20-30 pounds or so? Not so bad, I'll fill up next time.

When you only have 64hp, a sputtering, starving fraction of that power isn't much to work with. Even so, I did have an exciting tankslapper in the wettest and very fast part of the course. The super-short wheelbase is really hard to catch once it steps out. It swung back and forth several times, and I caught all of them but the last one! I might have sort-of spun, but I didn't get completely backwards, and I didn't stall...and only two cones! A tiny car can only knock over so many. 🤣

As always, I got lots of comments and questions. Everybody seemed stoked about the little clown car. Looking forward to the next one, hopefully without and fuel starvation next time.